New U.S. Initiatives for the Transition from School to Work. Occasional Paper No. 8.

Kazis, Richard; Roche, Barbara

Two innovations have developed in response to economic and educational concerns--the demand for workers who will be able to contribute productively in the workplaces of the coming decade and the pedagogical movement toward a closer integration of clasroom and work-based learning. One such innovation, called Tech Prep, has been incorporated into the 1990 Carl Perkins Act. This initiative, promoted by the U.S. Department of Education, links the last 2 years of high school with the first 2 years of postsecondary learning in a sequence that is coordinated with and leads to either an associate degree or certification of occupational skills in a specific career area. The second innovative program, called youth apprenticeship or work-based learning, was influenced by European apprenticeship systems. Youth apprenticeship programs meld Tech Prep-style coordination of secondary and postsecondary learning with paid work experience beginning in the last 2 years of high school, providing the context for both classroom and work-based learning. These two models are seen as competing solutions to the same problem: one is driven by labor market concerns, the other by educational concerns. The differences between the two will narrow in the coming years. (NLA)